James and Kerry Gray
Ultimate Garden contestants James and Kerry Gray from Lower Hutt dream of creating a restful, low maintenance garden for themselves, but it's tempting to ask whether they would ever find the time to use it.
When they are not working, the Grays are often sampling outdoor activities like tramping, cycling and skiing. James, a fire-fighter, also coaches rugby and for the past few years has been working on a major renovation of the couple's Lower Hutt house. Kerry jokes of often coming home from work to find walls missing, or a chimney knocked down.
On Ultimate Garden, the Grays will face the best kind of test - one with an immovable deadline. Each episode, the four couples will be given a weekend to complete one in a series of surprise challenges, as they work towards creating their ideal garden. The couple whose garden is judged most popular at series end will score a new Holden Crewman Ute stuffed with prizes - which, as James argues, is a pretty good incentive to do your best.
Since learning they have won a place on the show, the Grays have been preparing for Ultimate Garden just about every day. Says James: "Working on our house, we do a lot of planning before taking any big step, and on a TV show you can't do that. So weve been trying to do as much research as we can, before we actually hit the ground."
Kerry has spent her whole life living in the Hutt Valley, though these days she works in Wellington as an insurance broker. A keen gardener, she is looking forward to applying her experiences on Ultimate Garden to the huge backyard at home, one of the few areas of the property the couple are yet to have a go at.
James, who hails originally from Dunedin, has been a firefighter for more than two decades. In that time he has worked at every fire station in the Wellington area. All the call-outs, regular training, school visits and desk work mean little down time on the job.
James and Kerry first met more than 25 years ago at a disco in Wellington. Curiously, one of the only times the couple have got into heated arguments came when they were dragged along to a rock and roll dance evening by some friends. "I found that I could dance with anybody else, except James," laughs Kerry. "So we gave up rock and roll, to stay married."
For Ultimate Garden, James and Kerry hope to create a formal garden that requires little upkeep, but are aware that they may need to adapt their plans depending on the challenges that come their way. "Over the years, we've learnt to do a lot of things around the property ourselves," adds James, "so if we can't do something, we'll just wing it."
"He's very bossy," adds Kerry with a laugh. "There may be a bit of stress."
